[sorry for the cross post looks like this group is check more often]

hi all,

i'm a client-side web (developer? designer? don't know anymore) with a fair
amount of server-side experience (ASP, some PHP, a little JSP) and found
myself with what i now consider to be a too-light skill set. the bay area
is awash in web developers now and no jobs for them, unlike 6 months ago.
anyway, i've determined that java is the way to go for me as i know i could
find employment immediately if i had that kind of experience. i have a great
book (java: how to program by deitel & deitel) but know i need to get certified
(right?) and for that i feel i need a class.

so.

has anyone gone through this recently? i'm not an absolute newbie, so i'm
hoping to skip the general computing classes, and hope to skip a whole class
devoted to OOP (although i know this would be a good idea) and get right
into java. i would appreciate any thoughts anyone could give me as to what
they liked or disliked about obtaining gainful java/jsp employment.

thanks!
gene